With elections fast approaching (yes, I know it is still a year away, but prepare yourself now for the constant influx of advertisements that are just around the corner), I was interested to gauge our the University of Washington's current political sentiment.
Are UW students interested in politics? Are they even registered to vote? These are just a few of the questions I had, so I released an online survey, and below are the results. Of course, those of you who have taken a basic statistics/research class (or just have a fair bit of common sense) will know that no survey will be perfect/can perfectly represent our entire campus, but putting social media biases (I obtained most of my results through Facebook users) aside, we can use these results (taken with a grain of salt) to get an idea of current campus sentiment.
Some of the presidential candidates weren’t selected/voted for by respondents, so they aren’t visible on the diagram (the size of the boxes approximately represents the percentage of voters that chose that option), though Bernie is dominating. Those candidates are: Jim Gilmore, Mike Huckabee, George Pataki, and Rick Santorum. The candidates that got too few votes for their boxes to be large enough to show their names are: Martin O’Malley, Ted Cruz, Lindsey Graham, and John Kasich. There are still many politicians in the running, with only three Democratic candidates, and more than a dozen Republican candidates. Both parties will elect one nominee for the position of President and one nominee for the position of Vice President to represent them during their respective conventions in July of 2016. Until then, we will have to wait and see if Donald Trump continues to lead the polls, and wonder whether Bernie (who has been steadily gaining in the polls) will pull ahead of Hillary.
You may be wondering what my answers were: I’m embarrassed to admit I just registered to vote this year, and I am turning 21 in March. Fortunately, though, I will be able to participate in voting for the 2016 Presidential election. With that being said, there are many other important elections that take place (besides the Presidential election), including those of the Congressional politicians, and I encourage everyone to register to vote and try to become as educated as possible for any and all upcoming elections in their districts/counties. Additionally, I would have to say I identify as liberal, leaning more toward “very” than “moderately.” I do think Obama has effectively handled many issues while in office, leaving us in a better position than when he started. I am very torn between all three of the leading (and only) Democratic nominees, while I am strongly opposed to all three of the national poll-leading Republican nominees (Trump, Carson, Fiorina) from representing our country. It seems our campus deviates in republican support from the national polls, as the top three Republican contenders according to our respondents are Jeb Bush, Rand Paul, and Marco Rubio.
I am hoping to take another survey similar to this closer to election day to see how UW students contribute to/influence the election results. If you are interested in participating, leave a comment below!
